the UN General Assembly passed a resolution expressing "serious concern" about human rights violations in Iran, including the use of torture and public executions, and called on Tehran to end the abuses.

Do Cong Toan, a hired assassin, was executed in Vietnam by a Ho Chi Minh city firing squad for the slashing to death Dang Vu Thang, the deputy chief of the HCM city zoo’s accounting department, in August 2001.

the presentation of the Spanish edition of Hands Off Cain’s 2005 report – The Death Penalty Worldwide took place in Mexico City.

King Mohammed of Morocco pardoned or reduced the prison sentences of 10,000 people to mark the 50th anniversary of independence, Justice Ministry officials said.

Singapore will hang 25-year-old Australian drug smuggler Nguyen Tuong Van on December 2, despite numerous pleas by Canberra for clemency, his Australian lawyer Lex Lasry said.

Massachusetts lawmakers rejected a bill that would have revived capital punishment in a liberal US state that has not put anyone to death since 1947, defeating a proposal by its Republican governor.

it was reported that two Sudanese soldiers were sentenced to death by a special court set up to try crimes in the country's western strife-torn Darfur region for murdering a civilian there.

a court in the self-declared republic of Somaliland sentenced eight people to death for killing three aid workers between 2002-2004.

Philip Alston, special rapporteur on extrajudicial, summary or arbitrary executions for the UN Commission on Human Rights, urged the Singapore government not to hang Nguyen Tuong Van, a convicted Australian heroin trafficker, saying the execution violated international legal standards.

a man was publicly hanged in the town of Qazvin, west of the Iranian capital Tehran.

the Democratic candidate Tim Kaine beat the Republican Jerry Gilmore in the elections to become governor of Virginia.

Hands Off Cain was awarded the peace prize “Love and Psyche 2005” by the 11th MEDFILM festival, a competitive international film festival dedicated to human rights.